Some advice on a 3 year old Collie Aggressive behaviour.

[Gumball180]

Hello,

I wanted to ask for a little advice. about 3-4 years ago we got a Collie Puppy. We got him a tough time. My grandfather had not long died and my grandmother was diagnosed with Dementia. We had not long lost out last Collie, a rescue dog. The parents were on edge because of the grandparents and my younger brother had moved of to Uni so all the new Puppy had was me. As he got older he become more aggressive. He calmed down a lot now he's gotten older but he can have aggressive out bursts and acts as though he is unsure of people in the house. He hates to be cornered even when he's waiting for a door to be opened for him he can snarl or growl if the person opening the door gets too close to him, like blocking him in and he can't get away. Getting him out of the back of the car after a walk he can also start to snarl. I'm not sure what he is excepting to happen to him. Just an animal thing but it's like he doesn't feel safe.

When he is in the living room at night and if somebody moves he will sometimes growl and walk of somewhere else. It seems to me that he is pretty nervous at times. He has bitten people in the past but he has only done it three times in he's life.

Saying all that, how he can be so aggressive especial at night as he knows nobody will play with him until morning. He can be very loving. Whenever he gets hurt, like stepping on something while he is walking he runs up to people for attention. He tries to get as close to people as he can when he looks for attention too. He gets jealous of other dogs pretty easily too. He loves to play fetch and catch things too.

There was a period of 3 months or so when he didn't do a single thing but then he started doing it again. There will be days that will go by when he does nothing then all of a sudden he becomes aggressive again.

I think two main things that has caused him to act this way is how the household was when he was a puppy and he was attacked by two dogs when he was a puppy. I don't know what they do to their dogs but the two dogs are known to be very aggressive toward people and other dogs. They backed him up into a corner and jumped on him. They didn't hurt him that bad just a scratch but it made him very nervous being in the house for awhile after. He just stared at the front door as if they were going to come through at any moment took him awhile to calm down.

Everyone loves him but I just wish he would be able to be calm.

 

Thank you for any advice, sorry for any odd sentences. I'm pretty tired!

[GentleLake]

This forum is for training questions related to training working livestock dogs. You'll get more responses if you repost in the General Border Collie Discussion.

That said, welcome to the Boards. It would be helpful to know what you've done to help your dog. It would probably also be best to recommend that you consult a veterinary behaviorist or a certified animal behavior consultant. 3 bites is pretty serious. If your dog bites the wrong person or of the intensity pf the bites increases, you could be forced to euthanize your dog and would almost certainly also be liable for damages. It's a big risk to take.